How to Tame a Ghast in Minecraft: Raise and Ride a Happy Ghast

Regular ghasts can’t be tamed, so to tame a ghast in Minecraft you raise a Happy Ghast instead. Get a Dried Ghast block, place it in water so it hatches into a ghastling after about 20 minutes, let it grow into a Happy Ghast over roughly 20 more (snowballs speed that up), then put a harness on it and climb aboard.

Happy Ghasts arrived in the Chase the Skies drop on June 17, 2025 (Java 1.21.6 and Bedrock 1.21.90). We rechecked the recipes, drop tables and tags below against Java Edition 26.3’s game data and Bedrock 26.60 (October 27, 2026) in October 2026. Java 26.4 is in snapshots, so recheck once it releases.

Can you tame a ghast in Minecraft?

No. Regular ghasts are hostile Nether mobs with no taming mechanic, and Java 26.3’s can_equip_harness tag contains exactly one mob: the Happy Ghast. When players search for how to tame a ghast, the Happy Ghast is the answer, and you raise it from a block rather than taming a wild one.

Its stats differ too. In 26.3’s data, the Happy Ghast is immune to fall damage, and Mojang’s notes say it can’t be bred and doesn’t panic when hurt.

Step 1: Get a Dried Ghast

You have three routes, and they cost very different amounts of time. The numbers below come from Java 26.3’s recipe and loot tables.

How we got those figures: a ghast drops 0 or 1 tear at even odds, and each Looting level adds a random 0 to 1 per level, rounded, which works out to 1.5 extra tears on average at Looting III. Dried Ghasts carry a weight of 10 out of 469 in the piglin bartering table, and 1 divided by 0.0213 is about 47 ingots.

Two tips. Fight ghasts over solid ground, because tears that fall into lava are gone. And if you kill one with its own deflected fireball, the loot table adds the music disc “Tears.” While you’re down there, it’s worth packing for an ancient debris run too, since both jobs need the same fire protection and food.

Step 2: Rehydrate it in water

Place the Dried Ghast in water so it’s waterlogged. Shallow water is enough. Mojang’s notes say it goes through three visible stages over about 20 minutes, with sounds and particles changing at each stage, then a ghastling pops out.

• Don’t mine it mid-soak. Breaking it resets it to fully dry, whatever stage it reached.
• Keep the water. Pulled out of water, it dries back out over the same timescale.
• Stay nearby. The game only runs time in loaded chunks, so wandering far away pauses the process.

Placing it in water also earns the “Stay Hydrated!” achievement on Bedrock, and Java’s data has a matching husbandry advancement.

Step 3: Raise the ghastling

The ghastling is the baby. Per Mojang’s notes, it follows players within 16 blocks, otherwise drifts within 32 blocks of its home spot, and grows into a Happy Ghast in about 20 minutes.

Feed it snowballs to speed that up. Per the Minecraft Wiki, on Java each snowball cuts the remaining growth time by 10%, while on Bedrock 10 snowballs grow a newly hatched ghastling up straight away. Snowballs are also the only item in 26.3’s happy_ghast_food tag.

One trap since Java 26.1 and Bedrock 26.10: a Golden Dandelion (a dandelion surrounded by 8 gold nuggets) stops a baby mob from aging when you use it on one. The ghastling isn’t on 26.3’s list of mobs that can’t be age-locked. If yours seems stuck small, use a Golden Dandelion on it again to restart growth.

Step 4: Craft and equip a harness

The harness is what makes a Happy Ghast rideable. Craft it with 3 leather across the top row, then glass, wool and glass across the middle row.

The wool decides the color, so there are 16 versions, and you can re-dye one later. To equip it, approach your Happy Ghast holding the harness or a snowball. Mojang’s Happy Ghast feature notes that it flies down to you. Then use the harness on it. Shears take the harness back off, but only when nobody’s riding.

How long does it take to get a happy ghast?

Add Mojang’s two “about 20 minutes” stages and you get roughly 40 minutes from wet block to adult. A full Minecraft day-night cycle lasts 20 real minutes, so that’s about two in-game days of waiting, less with snowballs.

Use the waiting time. Thirty-plus minutes is plenty to collect leather, smelt glass and gather a stack of snowballs, so the harness is ready the moment it grows up.

How to get a happy ghast on Bedrock

Bedrock uses the same recipe and steps: craft a Dried Ghast from 8 ghast tears and 1 soul sand (or barter one from piglins), soak it in water for about 20 minutes, raise the ghastling, then equip a harness made from 3 leather, 2 glass and 1 wool. The drop and barter odds in the table above come from Java’s data, so Bedrock’s may differ.

Growth is the real difference. On Bedrock, feeding 10 snowballs to a newly hatched ghastling grows it into a Happy Ghast at once, so you can skip the second 20-minute wait entirely.

How to ride a happy ghast

The first player to mount sits in the front seat and steers. Point where you want to go and press forward; the Happy Ghast moves in the direction you look, up and down included. Up to three more players take the side seats, according to Mojang’s Java 1.21.6 notes.

• Healing: it regenerates slowly on its own, faster in rain or snow, or when flying at cloud height.
• Water: it’s on 26.3’s dismounts_underwater list, so riders get dropped off if it goes under.
• Standing on top: dismount onto its back and it holds still, squared to the nearest compass direction. That makes it a floating platform for tall builds.
• Roaming: left alone, a harnessed one wanders within 32 blocks of home (64 without a harness). Tie it to a fence post with a lead if you want it waiting where you left it.

Mace players use that hovering platform as a launch pad: step off, fall, and land a smash attack. If that’s the plan, read up on what Density does before you enchant. And if the sea interests you more than the sky, our guide to taming a nautilus covers the ocean’s mount.

Carrying passengers and cargo

A harnessed Happy Ghast can tow. Sneak while holding a lead and use it on the ghast to attach boats, chest boats, horses, camels, sniffers and a few other mobs. Its leash snaps at 16 blocks of stretch, compared with 12 for other mobs, per Mojang’s notes.

That turns it into a moving van. Load a chest boat, hook it on, and fly a full inventory’s worth of materials to a build site that would take ages to reach on foot. Shears unhook the lead when you land.

Happy Ghast FAQ